American reacts to 'Flower of Scotland' the Scottish National Anthem

Thank you for watching me, a humble American, react to Flower of Scotland

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[Jerostax]

I'm french and I'm here to say Flower of Scotland is the best anthem ever, and Scotland is the best country ever, period.

[livvymunro]

The "Flower of Scotland" refers to the Scottish army which defeated the invading English army under Edward ll at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314 and sent them back to England to "think again" about trying to conquer Scotland. It was the decisive battle of the wars of independence which ensured that Scotland remained an independent nation until voluntarily uniting with England in 1707. If you think the American Declaration of Independence is something special, you should read the Declaration of Arbroath. It was written in 1320 and is Scotland's assertion of nationhood . It says (translated from Latin).
"As long as 100 of us remain alive, we will never submit to the dominion of England. For it is not for glory, riches or honour that we fight, but for freedom itself which no good man lays down but with his life ."

[gmdhargreaves]

Im a proud Englishman, I’ve served alongside the Scots Guard (I’m 2 PARA), the SG’s are the friendliest, kindest and funny brothers you could be hunkered with but let we tell you, they are hard as nails, they simply will not stop fighting, I know now why WE NEVER tried to take Scotland they are fierce for real!😊

[phelimmercer]

I'm Irish. An the flower of Scotland has to be the best anthem

[billybscotland]

Nothing better than Flower of Scotland live at the rugby. The passion and emotion of all singing can be heard and seen.

[codenamevoid]

So im northern irish, and am very proud to be northern irish, but we don't exactly have a national anthem but im in Scotland for uni and to see everyone on this county band together and belt their anthem out is amazing, im very proud to be northern irish but im also proud of my Scottish heritage and have adopted this great nation as my second home

[knotzer]

Proud to be 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 ashamed of our government 😤

[tamasmarcuis]

The song is about the spirit to resist tyranny. The song never mentions England because King Edward of England was as much a tyrant in England. The song also promotes peaceful resistance. The song talks of the warriors who fought bloody battles to expel invaders but goes on to say " those days are past and in the past they must remain". Violence was the only way in the past but there is a better peaceful way now.

[mmcbey]

I learned the words more than 50 years ago and still, aged 69, and living far away, hearing this brings a tear to my eye - every time.

[justintime]

That feeling at a Scottish rugby match when thousands sing this. Lump in the throat is an understatement

[EscanV]

Tradition of the anthem when they say "That stood against him" the crowd shouts "against who?" then "Proud Edward's Army" the crowd shouts "B#stards" then "and sent him homeward" the crowd shouts "F##k Off"... It's the only anthem where you can curse. Proud to be a Scot!

[fionagallegos]

Homesick now. Scottish lass in the Cayman Islands. Just brilliant. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇹🇨🥰

[ScotsmanFinn]

It talks about winning a battle against england ( proud Edwards Army) to gain independence. Proud to be scottish🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

[jordanparsons]

We the Welsh + Scottish sent the English packing 🤣

[moonramshaw]

I'm English and even I think it's a great anthem👍

[NoxiousRob]

If you want to see a truly amazing rendition of this song then watch the 1990 Grand Slam decider between Scotland and England. The Scottish team didn't just sing along, they absolutely belted it out with passion. England were big favourites to win that match, but the Scots got the victory.

I recall one of the England players talking about it some years later, and saying when he saw the raw emotion of the Scots as they sung the anthem he suddenly realised they had a game on their hand.

[eddiebarrett]

One thing that I think passed you by was between verses, the band stops and the 2nd (actually the 3rd) verse is sung a cappella. As many times as I have heard it, it still sends shivers through me.

[catherinewilkins]

The battle they are singing about was in 1314, the Edward is Edward II King of England. We have had numerous battles on these fair Isles. I thought you knew we all hate each other, be it Country or County, lol. Replicated in our sports teams.

[Jamie-oqkg]

"Yer wee bit hill and glen" is like a metaphor for freedom. Our hills (Bens/Glens(Ben Nevis/Glen Nevis(Ancient Scottish/Gaelic)/Mountains) and Glens (Valleys/Low Lands between the Glens/Bens/Mountains) i.e. fought and died for our land/mountains/valleys or the freedom of aforementioned hills and glens.

[paulharvey]

It refers to the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314, when the Scots led by King Robert the Bruce managed to overcome a much larger English army led by King Edward II (of England, as the United Kingdom has only existed since 1707), at the location just south of Stirling. Hence the words, "O Flower of Scotland (meaning the Scots army), when will we see your like again? You fought and died for, our wee bit hill and glen (wee is the Scots word for small, and glen is the word we use in place of valley - in which most of the Scottish Highland People still lived at that time); and stood against them - King Edward's Army, then sent them homeward, to think again (about the wisdom of invading Scotland!) Unfortunately, they didn't do so very well as there were many more battles between England and Scotland over land, territory, religion, kings and politics - which many might say is again going on today, as the UK Government is refusing to allow the devolved Scottish one from holding a referendum on whether the two countries should again become independent of one another - for which the polls tell us there is currently a majority of Scottish people in favour of!

The problem is that the main UK-wide parties are unionist and have lost most of their Scottish supporters over the past few decades, thanks to the emergence of the pro-independence Scottish National Party, whom many of them now vote for instead. Despite having been the third-largest party in the House of Commons for the past decade or so, their members' influence there isn't as great as it should be, largely because the big two keep revising parliamentary seat boundaries within England, giving it more MPs than it used to have, to make up for the seats in Scotland that they've lost; and they refuse to introduce any form of proportional representation as they'd both stand to lose out by doing so! Scotland is also pro-European Union and voted heavily against leaving it in the UK referendum that led to that taking place - and with ever-widening political and cultural differences, the majority of Scots now feel there is a lack of democracy within the UK government, as they (and Welsh, and Northern Irish nationalist) minority parties will always remain that at Westminster, owing to the continued lack of PR.